


Street Fighter is Easy, Try the Claw Machine Instead

by mtskws



Category: Gintama
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Arcades, Fluff, Fluff without Plot, M/M, No Plot/Plotless
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-07
Updated: 2021-01-07
Packaged: 2021-03-17 09:53:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,178
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28598010
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mtskws/pseuds/mtskws
Summary: "Last game, I gotta be home for dinner.”Gintoki nods eagerly and points to the claw machine at the corner of the arcade.“I saw a strawberry milk plushie in there when we came in,” he says, extending his hand expectantly.In which Gintoki and Hijikata visit an arcade.
Relationships: Hijikata Toshirou/Sakata Gintoki
Comments: 13
Kudos: 70
Collections: Gintama THE FINAL: The Compressed Timeline Mini Reverse Bang Fanworks Event





	Street Fighter is Easy, Try the Claw Machine Instead

“You’re gonna regret this,” Gintoki snarls, delivering a slew of punches and kicks so quickly that Hijikata barely has time to block.

“Stop!” Hijikata yells, desperately trying to look for an opening. “Dude, stop, I can’t—”

Gintoki doesn’t care. He unleashes his ultimate attack on Hijikata, a series of kicks to the abdomen.

As Ryu’s body collapses lifelessly onto the ground, the words “GAME OVER” flash big on the screen. Chun-Li leaps for joy and poses cutely with a peace sign, and Hijikata slams his head on the buttons of the control panel.

“You cheated, I told you to stop,” he groans, watching as Gintoki eagerly collects the tickets spitting out of the machine.

“Not my fault you suck at Street Fighter,” Gintoki replies, completely unbothered. “I knew you’d lose the moment you chose Ryu, you basic bitch.”

Hijikata’s eye twitches at the insult, but he can’t find it in himself to continue bickering.

“Whatever. Last game, I gotta be home for dinner.”

Gintoki nods eagerly and points to the claw machine at the corner of the arcade.

“I saw a strawberry milk plushie in there when we came in,” he says, extending his hand expectantly.

“And I’m the basic bitch?” Hijikata asks, but he sighs and drops a few coins in Gintoki’s hand anyway.

Gintoki runs to the claw machine, leaving Hijikata to take both of their school bags and lug them over his shoulder. When he reaches Gintoki’s side, throws the sling of Gintoki’s bag carelessly around his neck, and yells at him for being a lazy piece of shit, he notices that Gintoki is frowning at the machine as if it had personally offended him and his family.

He tracks Gintoki’s gaze and realises that the only visible strawberry milk plushie is nestled snugly among a few other food plushies.

“Ooh, tough luck,” Hijikata snickers, putting his hands in his pocket. Gintoki drops a coin in the slot and assumes his position, tall back hunched over the joysticks as he stares intently at the plushie, the tip of his tongue sticking out the corner of his mouth in pure concentration. After he brings the claw directly above the plushie, he slaps the giant button on the panel. The claw closes in on the plushie, but its grip is too weak; it comes up empty.

Gintoki cusses to himself and feeds the machine another coin, and Hijikata glances quietly at his watch, wondering if Gintoki will catch the plushie before sunset.

He doesn’t. The sky is orange now, and Hijikata has a thick stack of arcade tickets in his hand.

As the claw rises, sad and empty again, the machine spits out more tickets. Hijikata slaps Gintoki hard on the shoulder.

“Dude, enough, I need to go home.”

“Come on, I almost got it, just a couple more tries,” Gintoki pleads, jabbing his finger on the glass to prove his point. The plushie is a little displaced from its original position, but not by much.

“There’s a fucking line, dumbass,” Hijikata hisses, and Gintoki turns around to see a bunch of kids waiting sleepily for him to finish. One of them is crying, and his mother shoots Gintoki a glare as she pats her child’s back. Gintoki turns back to face the machine and makes some kind of anguished battle cry from the back of his throat. Hijikata stares at him, not sure if he should be concerned or embarrassed.

“Just get the mayo plushie,” he waves dismissively. The mayonnaise bottle plushie is resting at the top of all the other toys, making it much easier to grab.

“Are you kidding? I don’t even like mayonnaise.”

“We can try again tomorrow after class,” Hijikata tries. “I’ll come with you.”

Gintoki stares, hard and longing, at the strawberry milk plushie, before hanging his head in defeat. He slips his last coin into the slot and easily wins the mayonnaise plushie. He takes it out of the machine and tosses it at Hijikata without a word, hiking his bag higher on his shoulder and trudging towards the exit.

Hijikata sighs and rubs the back of his nape.

“Gintoki… wait here,” he says firmly, pulling Gintoki by the wrist and dragging him to a corner. Without waiting for a response, he runs off to the gift counter.

“I want a strawberry milk plushie,” Hijikata demands, slamming all the tickets in his hand on the glass counter. The employee behind it jumps from his seat and almost falls over, clearly sleeping behind his glasses.

“Jesus, kid,” he groans, “wanna trade for some manners first?”

Hijikata ignores him.

“How many tickets for the strawberry milk plushie in the claw machine?”

“What, you want me to fish it out for you?”

“I’ll pay. How much?”

The man stretches his back and hobbles to open one of the cabinets behind him. In the next moment, a strawberry milk plushie comes flying in Hijikata’s direction.

The man swipes all the tickets off the table.

“That’ll be all your tickets for that toy,” he says, bending down to keep the tickets in a drawer. “I’d have given it to you if you’d just asked nicely, stupid kid.”

But when he looks up from the drawer, Hijikata is long gone.

* * *

Hijikata returns in a sprint. He grabs onto Gintoki’s bag, and hooks the plushie to the front.

“What are you—” Gintoki looks at the plushie dangling from his bag. “How—”

“I traded our tickets,” Hijikata explains matter-of-factly, hooking the mayonnaise plushie onto his own bag.

“There,” he says proudly, looking up at Gintoki, “now we match.”

As they leave the arcade in the crimson sunset, walking along a street of shophouses and food stalls, Gintoki finds himself smiling at the way his footsteps fall in sync with Hijikata’s, their new keychain plushies bouncing rhythmically against their bags as they walk.

The street is wide and fairly empty, but they’re walking so close to each other that their shoulders bump with every other step, and Hijikata’s cold hand occasionally brushes against Gintoki’s. Neither of them seems to mind, though, both choosing to maintain their closeness. The next time their hands touch, Gintoki hooks onto Hijikata’s fingers. And then, when Hijikata doesn’t pull away, Gintoki shifts to hold his hand better, relishing in how perfectly it fits in his palm.

Their steps never falter, arms now swinging together with their synchronised footsteps.

“Do you have dinner at home?” Hijikata asks, after a thoughtful pause. Gintoki purses his lips.

“I think I have half a sausage in the fridge.” He thinks for a bit, and snaps his fingers as he recalls, “and an onigiri, but it’s probably mouldy by now.”

Hijikata squeezes his hand, ever so gently.

“We’re having chocolate ice cream tonight,” he says, and Gintoki’s eyes light up.

“Can I come?”

Hijikata looks at him, looks at his dumb, eager face, and laughs, fondness blooming in his chest. He pulls Gintoki around the corner, leading him through a shortcut to his house, and Gintoki follows, their connected shadows extending long behind them, slowly disappearing into the alley.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading this very short, self-indulgent piece!
> 
> This work was inspired by [Trapid](https://twitter.com/trapid_v)'s beautiful piece of [art](https://twitter.com/trapid_v/status/1347137592555229187?s=21)! She is insanely talented and skilled, please show her some support <3
> 
> Do check out the other works in [this collection](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/gntmthefinalminibang) as well :)


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